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Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by theDurk

The only real baseball stadium in São Paulo belongs to the Nisei community who love their baseball as much as they do in the homeland. São Paulo is home to the largest community of Japanese outside Japan in the world. (Rheingold could never talk about the Japanese.) The best of those players end up playing in the Japanese professional leagues and there are a few of those on the team. That's why they got as far as they did. I don't know about the Caribbean part, or how any non-Nisei Brazilian ends up playing baseball.

It's hard to remember specifically, because this was a couple months ago, but a lot of the other players had names that were clearly Spanish and physically appeared to be Cuban or of other Caribbean heritage.

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by Bronson'sCornrows

It's hard to remember specifically, because this was a couple months ago, but a lot of the other players had names that were clearly Spanish and physically appeared to be Cuban or of other Caribbean heritage.

Interesting. I didn't see the prelim, but there is only one name on the WBC roster that is not either Japanese or typical Brazilian. Fernandes with an "s" is Brazilian, as is Gomes. Many Brazilians could be said to resemble Cubans, as they have similar genetic origins. But the one exception is indeed a 37-year old minor leaguer named JC Muniz who was born in Cuba, played in MiLB 2005-2009, and now plays in Japan. How he plays for Brazil is something I could not discover.

Many of the players with good Brazilian names (e.g. Gouvea, França, Viera, Magario) played in Japan, so I suspect there may be some intermarriage going on.

Anyway, they play Japan at 5AM ET tomorrow. My DVR is set. I hope they don't embarrass themselves. Brasillllllllll!!

"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!" - New York Yankees announcer Bill White (October 2, 1978)

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by theDurk

Interesting. I didn't see the prelim, but there is only one name on the WBC roster that is not either Japanese or typical Brazilian. Fernandes with an "s" is Brazilian, as is Gomes. Many Brazilians could be said to resemble Cubans, as they have similar genetic origins. But the one exception is indeed a 37-year old minor leaguer named JC Muniz who was born in Cuba, played in MiLB 2005-2009, and now plays in Japan. How he plays for Brazil is something I could not discover.

Many of the players with good Brazilian names (e.g. Gouvea, França, Viera, Magario) played in Japan, so I suspect there may be some intermarriage going on.

Anyway, they play Japan at 5AM ET tomorrow. My DVR is set. I hope they don't embarrass themselves. Brasillllllllll!!

I wonder if there were different guys in the preliminary round? I was sure I saw a lot of Spanish names. I grew up in a heavily Portuguese area and I'm a black/Portuguese/Irish mix myself, so I'm usually good with this stuff. My best friend, who is full blooded Portuguese (mainland and Azorean mix), watched it with me for about 20 minutes and agreed with me at the time. We could have been wrong, though. To be fair, there are a fair number of common Portuguese names around here that wouldn't be common down in Brazil, and the reverse is probably true as well. It's entirely possible we just didn't recognize some for being what they were.

FWIW, Muniz is the one name I remember us going over quite a bit. Moniz is a common surname where we grew up; we couldn't decide whether Muniz was the Spanish cognate of Moniz or whether it was simply an older version of Moniz. The guy looked Cuban to us, so that was the tiebreaker. My last name, for example, is Rezendes, which is an older Portuguese version of the more common Resendes. The Spanish cognate is usually Resendiz, but occasionally Recendis or Rezendez. I'm kind of carrying on now, aren't I? I'll stop.

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by Bronson'sCornrows

I wonder if there were different guys in the preliminary round? I was sure I saw a lot of Spanish names. I grew up in a heavily Portuguese area and I'm a black/Portuguese/Irish mix myself, so I'm usually good with this stuff. My best friend, who is full blooded Portuguese (mainland and Azorean mix), watched it with me for about 20 minutes and agreed with me at the time. We could have been wrong, though. To be fair, there are a fair number of common Portuguese names around here that wouldn't be common down in Brazil, and the reverse is probably true as well. It's entirely possible we just didn't recognize some for being what they were.

FWIW, Muniz is the one name I remember us going over quite a bit. Moniz is a common surname where we grew up; we couldn't decide whether Muniz was the Spanish cognate of Moniz or whether it was simply an older version of Moniz. The guy looked Cuban to us, so that was the tiebreaker. My last name, for example, is Rezendes, which is an older Portuguese version of the more common Resendes. The Spanish cognate is usually Resendiz, but occasionally Recendis or Rezendez. I'm kind of carrying on now, aren't I? I'll stop.

The common form in Brazil is actually Rezende with no s or z at the end. (16 million hits on google.com.br Resendes only gets 400k.) I know a couple of people named Rezende. Patricia Rezende was a big hit on The Voice Brazil over Xmas...

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

The Netherlands (managed by former Yankee Hensley Meulens) beat Korea 5-0. Andruw Jones was the DH and while he did leave 4 guys on RISP, he was 2-4 with a double. Other notables on this team are Andrelton Simmons, who's the shortstop for the Braves, and Roger Bernadina, who is an outfielder for the Nationals.

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by BronxYanks45

Melky Mesa, withdraws from WBC for the Dominican Republic

I like the WBC but I'm glad to see this. Melky's been doing well in ST and it's in his best interest to stay in Florida so that TPTB can keep an eye on him. I think he's an longshot to make the Opening Day roster but he might be the guy that gets a frequent-trip ticket from Scranton to the Bronx this season.

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by theDurk

The common form in Brazil is actually Rezende with no s or z at the end. (16 million hits on google.com.br Resendes only gets 400k.) I know a couple of people named Rezende. Patricia Rezende was a big hit on The Voice Brazil over Xmas...

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Just finished watching Japan-Brasil. Very exciting, Brasil looked like they had a chance to pull off an upset squeaker as late as the top of the eighth. Good tight game with lead changes. There were maybe 35 Nisei wearing green and gold in a packed and very quiet Fukuoka dome while Brasil led until Japan scored three in the eighth.

Brasil has held back their best pitcher; tonight at 10:30 against Cuba is do or die. In any case, they can be proud of their first WBC game.

"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!" - New York Yankees announcer Bill White (October 2, 1978)

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by theDurk

Just finished watching Japan-Brasil. Very exciting, Brasil looked like they had a chance to pull off an upset squeaker as late as the top of the eighth. Good tight game with lead changes. There were maybe 35 Nisei wearing green and gold in a packed and very quiet Fukuoka dome while Brasil led until Japan scored three in the eighth.

Brasil has held back their best pitcher; tonight at 10:30 against Cuba is do or die. In any case, they can be proud of their first WBC game.

I think even if Brazil gets a win in the WBC, it will be a huge success for them.

Their effort last night against the Japanese was a success for Brazil.

Re: 2013 World Baseball Classic Thread

Originally Posted by BroadwayBomber55

Brazil is on the brink of elimination. If Cuba defeats China on March 4, Brazil and China will be eliminated eliminated and Cuba and Japan will advance to Round 2.

Isn't Brasil eliminated as of now? The best they can do is 1-2 and the worst Cuba can do is 1-2, and Cuba owns the tiebreaker based on head-to-head. Japan is also guaranteed a better record than Brasil.

EDIT: You're right, sorry. If Japan beats Cuba (possible), and China beats Cuba (unlikely) and loses to Japan (likely), you have three teams at 1-2. Then Brazil can win the tiebreaker if they win by a large margin against China and the other games are close.

I'm not holding my breath, but I still would love to see them go home with a win against China.

"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!" - New York Yankees announcer Bill White (October 2, 1978)